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“Hot” logs valued at more than P200, 000 seized in Samar

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MARABUT, Samar – Government authorities confiscated of illegally cut timbers of various species in a village of this town with an estimated value of more than P233, 000.
The fletches of illegally cut timbers were seized in Barangay Tinabanan, this town, on March 14 by a joint team composed of personnel from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, local police and soldiers belonging to the 52nd and 87th Infantry Battalions. Confiscated by the raiding team was 3,883.87 board feet of illegally cut timbers belonging to the species of lawaan, patsaragon and yakal with a street value of P233, 032.
Also seized were four units of chainsaws; 75 sacks of charcoal valued at P26, 250.
The owner or owners of the seized items have yet to be known to the authorities, said DENR Executive Regional Director Leonardo Sibbaluca.
However, during the raid, six men, whose identities were not disclosed, were arrested. They were seen to have boarded the cut lumbers to their motorcycles. Sibbaluca vowed that once unmasked, appropriate charges will be filed against the owners, particularly on violation of the Forestry Code of the Philippines.
It was learned that the joint team responded after a concerned citizen reported that several illegally-cut lumbers were being hauled and found along the pathway of kilometer 4 up to kilometer 22 of said village. Sibbaluca disclosed that intelligence report revealed that seized forest products believe to have been financed by some influential personalities and businessmen in Samar. “These trees are good for making furniture. I believe that this is part of a bigger haul to be delivered to Tacloban City or other places in the region,” Sibbaluca said.
Meanwhile, Elpidio Cabahit Jr., chief of the forest protection and law enforcement unit of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office based in Sta. Rita, also in Samar, admitted that it was very difficult to monitor a total of 186,864,12 hectares of forested lands under his jurisdiction.
He claimed his office has only 3 forest guards monitoring all the nine towns of Sta. Rita, Basey, Marabut, Calbiga, Hinabangan, Pinabacdao, San Sebastian, Talalora and Villareal Samar. “We lack men, logistics to guard our forests notwithstanding the danger since said some forested areas covering our area of responsibility were NPA rebel infested and some illegal loggers were also armed,” Cabahit said. (JAZMINE BONIFACIO/RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)

30 OFWs arrested in Saudi Arabia, says Migrante

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TACLOBAN CITY- Filipino migrant rights group Migrante has said at least 30 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were rounded up by Saudi police as the oil-rich kingdom intensified its crackdown on illegal migrants. “Saudi authorities heightened crackdown on undocumented migrants that started last week nabbed at least 30 OFWs as per the initial combined reports we have received so far from our affiliates in the kingdom,” said John Leonard Monterona, Migrante regional coordinator in Middle East. “The common notion that illegal migrants were the very reason why crime rate escalates in the kingdom is fairly objectionable. Most of the so called illegal migrants were actually victim of abuses, maltreatment and labor rights violations who were forced to abscond,” added Monterona in a statement.

According to Monterona, the Saudi’s Ministry of Interior issued a stern warning last month saying that it will intensify the crackdown on illegal expatriates as they have been tagged as main reason why crime rates escalated in the Saudi Arabia. “Those who were nabbed included mostly Asian migrant workers without resident permits, those working in jobs not matching with their work permit, and others working with another employer who were not their sponsors,” Monterona said. Monterona reported that in most areas in Saudi capital, the police conducted check points and at times searching houses where there are suspected illegal migrants.

Monterona, however, appealed to the Saudi government “not to treat the undocumented migrants as mere criminals.” Migrante has urged the Philippine government to provide assistance and follow up the immediate deportation of undocumented OFWs who are now languishing in Saudi jails. “We would like to remind the Aquino government that there are 200 plus distressed women OFWs in Bahay Kalinga in Riyadh, while about 80 male OFWs in a shelter rented by the Philippine embassy most of them have been there for at least 3 months to 1 year,” Monterona said.(RONALD O.REYES)

Princess Anne of the United Kingdom

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HER ROYAL HIGHNESS. Princess Anne of the United Kingdom listens intently as students of the Mariano Puno Elementary School in Kananga, Leyte render a song during her March 18 visit to said school which sustained damages during the onslaught of Yolanda. The repair of school buildings were undertaken by Save the Children of which the princess is its president in the UK. (Save the Children photo)

 

 

American humanitarian group to turn over school buildings in Guiuan

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Officials of the US-based Honeywell Humanitarian Relief Fund are to visit Guiuan town on March 24 to personally turn over the newly-constructed two school buildings at Ngolos Elementary School in Barangay Ngolos. All school buildings of said school were destroyed during the onslaught of supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

TACLOBAN CITY- Teachers and students of the Ngolos Elementary School(NES) in Guiuan town, Eastern Samar are ready to welcome officials of a humanitarian group based in the United States to show their gratitude for their assistance in constructing new school buildings. When supertyphoon “Yolanda” hit Guiuan town, all the school’s facilities were washed out, said school principal Esperanza Esquierdo. But with the assistance of the Honeywell Humanitarian Relief Fund (HHRF), who count a Kennedy scion of the America’s most famous family as a member, the school has now new, better and typhoon-resilient school buildings. “Of course, we are happy and grateful to them. All our school buildings here were washed out when Yolanda hit Guiuan,” Esquierdo said. The school buildings, located in Barangay Ngolos which is 14 kilometers away from town proper, were constructed on October of last year and finished last February.

Esquierdo said that the school buildings, composed of four classrooms each and a basketball court and playground, will forever be a reminder not only to them teachers and students but to the rest of the Ngolos residents on the benevolence of the HHRF. The HHRF is the humanitarian arm of the Honeywell Hometown Solutions, one of the world’s diversified manufacturing and technology leaders. Employees of the Honeywell Hometown Solutions, when they learned on the devastations caused by Yolanda, donated more than $151,000 to the HHRF for it to provide assistance to the victims of Yolanda.

On March 24, top officials of the HHRF will personally visit the NES to turn over the school buildings that they donated. The delegation will compose Honeywell president for Southeast Asia, Jim Bujold; Kerry Kennedy, director of Honeywell Hometown Solutions and Richard Walden, CEO Operation USA, partner of the Honeywell Humanitarian Relief Fund. They will be welcome by the school’s more than 400 students and teachers as well as by Guiuan Mayor Christopher Sheen Gonzales and his sister, former mayor Annaliza Gonzales-Kwan.

It was through the effort of Gonzales-Kwan why the HHRF was able to learn on the plight of the NES. The former mayor managed to find her way in contacting the Operation USA, an international relief agency of which HHRF is in partnership with in providing assistance to disaster victims.
And in showing their gratitude to the HHRF, the said school will now be known as the Ngolos Honeywell Elementary School. Gonzales-Kwan said that it was fitting that an American humanitarian group lent its support on the recovery effort of Ngolos which was once served as an important area of American forces during World War II. “We will forever be grateful to them,” she said. (JOEY A. GABIETA)

50 finishes heavy equipment operation course at the “Araw” training school

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PALO,Leyte- About 50 people finished a three-month course study on heavy equipment operations(HEO) at the “Araw” Vocational Training School, a facility put up by the South Korean contingents as part of their humanitarian mission after Leyte was devastated by supertyphoon “Yolanda” more than a year ago.
The HEO graduates were from the town of Tolosa, one of the areas in Leyte which saw destructions during the onslaught of Yolanda. The training on heavy equipment operations was supervised by the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA). Earlier, the said facility also offered HEO from the residents of Palo, Tanauan and Tacloban City, three of the areas in the province that bore the brunt of Yolanda. Out of the 50 new graduates, eight had specialized training for wheel loader; 10 for hydraulic excavator; 9 for truck mounted crane; 10 for bulldozer operation and 13 for pork lift operation and had successfully finished their 160 hours training that lasted for three months. As part of the new graduates employability TESDA Regional Director Cleta Omega announced that they will undergo a two month on-the-job training(OJT) which they will coordinate with the Department of Public Works and Highways and the provincial government of Leyte to link them with contractors. “This is to boost their self-confidence when they apply a job, because the training they had in the center was a simulation training that is different from actual operation,” Omega explained.

The OJT is part of their enhancement for the training facility which they conceptualized after TESDA and the provincial government. The trainees who will undergo OJT will be provided with group insurance. “We are doing this to strengthen this program, to make the trainees ready for the real workplace,” Omega stressed. Among the graduates was Maria Teresa Compas, 40, a resident of Barangay Opong, Tolosa and one of the three women in the batch. Compas, who only reached second year high school, said that while the training was largely seen as for men only, she nevertheless took the course and the challenge in order to help her husband. Her husband is working in Saudi Arabia to help feed and raise their eight children.
She said that at first she encouraged one of her son to take the course but decline. She decided to take the training herself instead. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)

New fire equipment donated by Japan to Ormoc government

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ORMOC CITY- The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), this city, received new equipment from the government of Japan. This was disclosed by city fire marshal Senior Inspector Romeo Jaca who said that the donation of the equipment was held at their national headquarters, coinciding on the month-long fire prevention observance on March 3. Received by his office from the Japanese government were fire truck pumper equipped with beacon light, antenna, spotlight, and a portable pump that has the capacity to sip water from its source and directly sprinkle to put off fire; fire truck high-altitude rescue that is useful in rescuing victims up to 3-storey building and ambulance with complete accessories.  Jaca said that all units were converted to left-hand-drive and that the personnel are still familiarizing each of the units’ functions since the directions are written in Japanese. Given the additional facilities, Jaca asked for additional manpower from the city government to man these new equipment. With the additional fire equipment, Jaca assured that they could now easily respond any fire alarm and able to facilitate fire fighting without necessarily calling for support from neighboring stations. Mayor Edward Codilla, who witnessed the event that was led by Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, thanked the latter for acceding to their request of new fire equipment. The new equipment given by the Japanese government has also the capacity to sip water from big bodies of water like river, swimming pool and the like and directly sweep in putting out fire.  The recipients of the Japan equipments were the areas hit by supertyphoon “Yolanda” like that of Ormoc. (ELVIE ROMAN ROA)

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